The Spanish Association of Pediatrics has published a document about him skin-to-skin contact at caesarean sections, focused specifically on the practical aspects for its implementation.
La scientific evidence demonstrates the multiple benefits of not separating mother from baby after birth: regulates the newborn's heart rate, respiration and temperature, reduces stress, promotes bonding and breastfeeding, reduces the incidence of postpartum depression ... in fact, everything is beneficial, skin contact with skin has no contraindications.
And if practicing it has benefits, not doing it has negative consequences: drop in temperature, increased stress in the newborn and in the mother, difficulty in establishing breastfeeding and bonding, increased risk of infections for the baby ... Whenever the health status of mother and baby allows it, it should be practiced skin-to-skin contact. The Ministry of Health recommends it in the Clinical Practice Guide on the care of normal delivery and breastfeeding.
Despite all this evidence, not all mothers and babies can benefit from this early contact. Unfortunately there are countless hospitals where it does not allow the skin-to-skin method after birth.
If a woman is going to deliver in a hospital where skin-to-skin contact is not routinely practiced for caesarean sections, she has right to request in writing your express desire to do so. The answer given by the hospital is usually negative and can be justified by mentioning that the facilities do not allow it.
The document published by the AEPED states that it is essential to take the necessary measures to implement strategies that allow skin-to-skin contact to be started. after caesarean sections. Birth is a unique moment In the life of the baby, the mother and the father and whenever the state of health allows it, the effects of the surgery should be minimized, trying to make the immediate puerperium the closest thing to that of a vaginal delivery.
To do this, create multidisciplinary committees made up of all professionals who are in contact with the mother who undergoes cesarean section: midwives, operating room nurses, pediatric nurses, resuscitation nurses, anesthesiologists, obstetricians, pediatricians ... to unify criteria and develop protocols for performance.
We hope that this document will help more and more hospitals act according to scientific evidence and promote the skin-to-skin contact at all births.